Was a great clinic, we had 2 shooters each to offer transition tips for pistols and more with long guns as well. Shot a couple of stages for critiquing and all in all, think they were all pretty happy to say the least when we were done. Thank you ladies for coming and glad we can offer something back to the sport for all.

Yeehaa ladies! Hope you are having great match’s!

From there it was grab some pictures of stages ready for main match. Go take a few runs at speed events. Pearl Starr and I then spent a couple hours in the LOCAS tent and in the down time helped Shamrock Sadie with a ‘craft task’ for later in the week.

Open ceremonies were held late in the afternoon. Alvira Sullivan Earp carried the flag for Australia! Legendary Lawman for Canada. Bloody Mary for Denmark. Chrissy Carson for Netherlands. The Kiwi Kid for New Zealand and in his uniform for the United States of America, Cash Cassidy.

With the anthem sung, the Wild Bunch, Match Directors, 111 first time attendees recognised it was on to the announcement of new Regulators. The 2018 Class of Regulators included many great recipients with none other than my very own Jackaroo!! Way to go man.

Four stages on the mid wave – 9, 10, 11, 12 were shot today with some degree of difficulty and success, blue skies, sunshine and a hell of a lot of New Mexico dust! Once we finished we shot the Posse shoot and we have a pretty good running time for that at the moment!

With weary feet, smiles as wide as you can get, we head to have lunch then back to the Motel for rest, relaxation and cleaning dust out of guns, nose etc. Haa haa haa

Coupled with a chat with Clancy, the occasional beer and a bit of hand sewing to finalise costume it is now getting late. Oh and a bit of cream puff for dessert. (groan after creammmmmm)

Charlies Spic n Span, Las Vegas NM ultra large mega cream puffs!

It is time to hit the hay, for the posse rides early in the morning with first shots down range at 7.30am.

Night peeps! Here’s to another awesome day tomorrow. Make it count! We are all still in the game! It ain’t over, til it’s over!

That afternoon was spent doing speed events before we retired for Ex Sighted and I to get into the scoring and the rain set in.

Main match started on the Friday and we had a great lot of folks on Posse 5 with Alvira Sullivan Earp, Big Bad John, Bones, Boots and Spur, Chiquita, El Hombre, Etta Place and Doc Cummins, Coyote Baz, Meggs, El Rio, Curly Wolf, J P Remington, The Deadwood Gunslinger, Legend Lyn and Short Shot (both from NZ), Lucky Luke, Willy Avashot (with Narelle kindly doing the scoring all weekend) Jack and myself.

Six stages done, rain again that evening, scores done and it’s an early night. Well, early to retire home with Charlie Wagon and Pearl Starr coming to stay for the evening. Rain putting a dampener on the hawk and knife throw side matches.

Saturday and it’s just a few spits of rain taking us into the final 6 stages of the match.

I wasn’t clean by any means which put me very close with the other ladies BUT managed to hang on and clinch it by just 1.30sec’s! 6th overall, 1st lady and 1st in Lady Wrangler, with a few side matches thrown in.

Pat Garrett, Side Match, Main Match and overall buckle

Jack finished with just a couple in 5th overall and 1st place Elder Statesman. Good one man!

As the Union Pacific roll's by on the nearby tracks of the Otto Road shooting club, the Border Vigilantes held their annual Hell On Wheels match this past weekend the 29 June-1st July.

Situated 8 miles west of Cheyenne, 233 shooters headed out for the match. Friday was side match day with a morning and afternoon 4 stage warm up, as well as speed side events and long range.

Saturday was 6 stages of main match and after coming from End Of Trail the target distances and sizes were somewhat different. The stages were reasonable with some longer runs between positions. At the end of the day I was clean and Jack had a couple of issues.

Saturday lunchtime after we finished shooting a storm came through which would be good for settling the dust and stopping the marble like granite dust from rolling under your feet across each stage! The temperature dropped by about 20 degrees.

Sunday took a cooler start for the morning requiring jacket and gloves for a few stages, we headed in to the next and last 6 stages of the match. We had an awesome posse headed by Pick along with Tin Lizzy, Avery Wade, Roy's Creek Dan, Highland Scottie, Gabby Gertie, West Okie Wayne, Loose Cannon, Coyote Cole, Burnt Bacon, Dapper Dynamite Dick, Della, Bandana Bob, Phantom, Mountain Menace, Pinewood Kid, Pinewood Rose and Cactus Jim.

Not fabulous for Jack and 1 miss for me so we would see how it would turn out in the wash. I won a few side matches and did the shootout – final round with Avery Wade.

Jack finished 2nd in category and 15th overall. Congrats to the other Silver Senior's and to Angry Tom who took 1st place.

Congrats to the fellow Lady Wrangler shooters!

I had a good finish 1st cowgirl and 8th overall with White Lightning Jack from New Zealand finishing 1st overall!

Congratulations to all who entered and thanks to the Border Vigilantes for our Hell On Wheels visit.

It's that time of year where cowboys and cowgirls come together for one of the biggest weeks of shooting.

The World Championship of cowboy action shooting is the agenda at Founders Ranch, New Mexico. Five countries – Australia, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and United States of America competed for the top honor's in both Wild Bunch and Cowboy matches.

This year, as previously reported, we decided to forego Wild Bunch and headed to Cortez prior to this week.

Monday: picked up packs, caught up with friends and readied ourselves for the week ahead. A pleasant surprise was my picture on The Independent for Cowboy Days in Edgewood/Moriarty. Thanks to Cat Ballou the photo BT Blade took of me during Wild Bunch last year was used for their front cover!

Tuesday: we did 6 stages of warm up and attempted to get acclimatised to the altitude whilst running uphill or across some of the stages.

Wednesday: Doily Gang Clinic was on, instructing with Honey B Quick, Shamrock Sadie, Lefty Jo, Two Sons. We had 18 ladies attend the transitions clinic, some returning for the 2nd or 3rd time and others their very first.

Plainsman, shotgun clinics and side matches were on. Cowboy swap meet, vendors are open and the crowds are starting to increase.

The evening kicked off with the opening ceremonies, Tumbleweed Wagon carried the flag for Australia.

The Wooly Awards were announced with Texas Jack Daniels receiving one as 2017 Governor of the year and The Territorial Marshal's with match directors Missouri Mae and Flat Top Okie took 2017 Match of the Year for Red Dirt Rampage.

The class of 2018 Regulators were announced! Congratulations to each and every one!

Thursday: first day of main match and we had the late wave start. It's hot, dusty but ready for action! Stages 1-4.

Friday: second day of main match, mid wave, stages 5-8, shopping with vendors and we're still having fun!

Saturday: it's the final 4! With the cooler very early start we were soon done and all up to the total scores to see where we all finished. We had a great posse – Posse 25 with posse marshal Chickamauga Charlie, Polly Penny Bright, Coffee, Shotgun Boogie, Hell Hound, Rephil, TinTin, Slow Hand Don, Dutch Bear, Justice Ann, Coal Train, Buck Garrett, Chantilly Shooter, Hot Rock, Hud, Hawkeye Kid, Pearl Starr, Charlie Wagon, Jack and myself.

With the posse shoot done, it was lunch, ice cream and head back to get ready for the banquet.

I attended the costume contest and was 2nd place in the new Steampunk category. Congratulations to EZGZ in 1st place. Congratulations to all other category winners and placings! There were some fabulous costumes!

The beer flowed, the music played and some showed off their dance skills.

The top 8 Wild Bunch men's and ladies were announced, as was the top 16 cowboys and cowgirls. Clancy and I were the only two Australians to make the shootout this year for cowboy match and RC Shot for the Wild Bunch shootout as an alternate.

Sunday: the shootout gets under way. Congratulations to Idaho Sixgun Sam and Last Chance Morales for winning not only the shootout but overall top lady and man for 2018 Wild Bunch.

The cowboy shootout is run and final finish was Holy Terror for the ladies and C.S. Brady for the men.

We arrived into Cortez Thursday afternoon to a quick shower of rain. The range was looking great and Windygap Regulators had it well set up for the match.

Friday was sunny and hot with Long Range, Cowboy Clays, an afternoon warm up stage and a fun team match. Jack, myself and Lefty Jo did a run through and then we did another run with Dutch Bear – who I'm going to call 'lucky shot' now! Lol!

That night we headed to the Brewery with our Nederland friends Dutch Bear and Justice Ann. It was nice to sit and chat over dinner and drinks with you both.

Heading to the range early Saturday morning it was a little overcast but rain was not forecast until later in the day.

Hmm, well that soon turned around to be light rain on and off while we were shooting. The fine powdery bull dust soon turned to layers of mud and we all found ourselves about 3″ taller!

We were pretty much done with 6 stages by 12.30pm and with lunch out of the way, the afternoon was free to do what you like. Having been out the night before and the weather was still a little indifferent, we opted for TV dinners and found a western channel with no ads! Uninterrupted, 3 old westerns I'd never heard of before – Gunfight in Dodge City, Bite The Bullet and can't remember the other one now.

2.12am – awoken from my slumber, thunderstorm and more rain!

Up at sparrows to head to the range as we were supposed to be starting again at 8am and it is awash with mud, puddles and still sprinkling.

Some were ready to finish the 4 stages but rightly so, the match directors called it. Everyone was given a 19sec stage for the 4 uncompleted ones and it was changed to a rank match given we all had shot a different 6.

With gear packed up everyone hung around for door prizes and eventually awards. There were a number of happy shooters who shot clean yesterday so got a clean match award, the famous Revenge soap, cloth and delicious fudge!

Jack finished 2nd in Senior. Congratulations to Quickly Downunder in 1st place and Kodiak Kid in 3rd place.

I was the only Lady Wrangler. Congratulations to all who placed in their categories!

New Zealand and Australia finished top overall. Congratulations White Lightning Jack on your overall win and I wish you all the very best for a great match at End of Trail!

It would be remiss of me if I didn't thank the Windygap Regulators for putting another great match despite the rain effects! As always your small group put in a huge effort to host the 18th Annual Revenge of Montezuma.

To all of you, especially Stumble Leena, Piedra Kidd and the Martin family we thank you again for having us! We all know the area definitely needed the rain too!

Well….We were able to do a late checkout in Cortez and secure our room in Moriarty for an extra night. So getting laundry on whilst packing, we were able to hit the road just after noon. We will be there late in the arvo and can catch up with others at Founders Ranch.

Have an awesome week and travel safely if y'all are still getting to End of Trail.

It's already New Years Day in New Zealand and Australia along with a few other countries.

As we wait for the big ball to drop here in Oklahoma, Jack and I kick back having a few drinks, would like to wish all our family, friends, cowboy's and cowgirl's, near and far, the most wonderful start to 2018.

May all you plans and dreams come true with hard work, persistence and a whole lot of fun in between.